The Fidelity Floret (1962)

Seven transistor, 1962 Fidelity Floret

My first radio at the grand age of 10-years-old was the wonderful (to me anyway) Fidelity Floret, 7 transistors portable radio, that came with it's own brown plastic carrying case, strap and earpiece. Two versions existed, mine that was burgundy coloured (shown here) with white knobs and a grey coloured one with orange knobs. The company based in London fitted a telescopic aerial that actually did nothing for the reception of the radio at all? More likely the thinking was if it sold in large numbers then non-Europe versions would have Short Wave band instead of the Long Wave band that was unused in USA, Africa, China, Japan etc., with SW you do need a pull up aerial.

For some reason I found the plastic carrying case more appealing than a leather one, the radio had a very modern feel to it with the only tag to the past being the brass arrow on the speaker grill that harped back to Ford cars of the 1950's. The brass piece in later years adorned my Discatron carrying case, the that's a story for a later Blog. At this early age the only programs I remember listening to was Radio Luxembourg, (only reception in the Midlands came after sunset) and Sam Costa who had a BBC program later on.

The radio had cost my parents in 1962 when it first came out a big 9 Guineas (9 pounds and 9 shillings in old money) plus purchase tax, being at this time a considerable amount of hard earned cash (about a weeks wage then) As a regular visitor to the city I found it in the window of an 'on the ball' sort of shop, Mortons I think it was called, in Birmingham City centre just at one end of New Street by the Queens Hotel entrance to the railway station, they sold all things electronic.

The more funky looking Floret

Whenever my mum took me to town I would always look longingly into this corner-shop window, Walkie-Talkies (2-way radios) was another one of my wants at this time, I do the same window gazing now still but on eBay's 'saved wants list', lol.  I was so proud to take this to my new secondary modern school and listen to the early pirates at play-time in the school grounds. I started a bit of a trend for taking radios to school and of course there was always somebody with a bigger and better radio than yours.

So because of this I started reading books in the local library about how these things worked and soon found ways of tweaking my Floret to receive stations the other guys just couldn't find. Another trick at the time was to put the tuning coil or ferrite rod near the lightening conductor (thick copper rod that ran right up the outside wall of the early Victorian annex school that I attended) which then worked as a 45 foot high aerial mast and the signal poured in loud and proud. Also worked well with old iron drain pipes.

The circuit for this radio used an extra transistor TR5 instead of a the usual driver and output transformer in the audio output stage, transistors at this time were new and quite expensive, but in this case saved weight and bulk in this pocket radio.

Anyway over the last few years I've been getting a little sentimental about my electronic journey through life and started buying back some old friends and memories that came with them. I started visiting the National Vintage Communications Fair that takes place once a year in early May, at a location found near Leamington Spa, in an old cow shed in the surrounding countryside.

Bingo! on my second visit I made here I came across my old friend, it didn't work, but was complete and only £5. Knowing the inside like the back of my hand I soon discovered to my horror the one piece that you can't really replace, an IF transformer, was faulty.

The Fidelity radio and it's internal components were hand made in these days in a so called solid state production. The IF transformers internal wiring was taught like a washing line, so if the radio was dropped the copper wire would snap. Other weaknesses was the germanium transistors (AF115) had been hand made and some would end up with stray wire off-cuts inside the screening can that in later years would short out the internal wiring. Anyway without the part I needed it stayed in a draw for about another 5 years until the next one turned-up, this one worked and again only cost £3.50 from an Asian family who lived just a few miles away from my home. This then I made one good receiver out of the two of them (wrong coloured cabinet on the new one, lol)  . It was then proudly displayed on a shelf in my home and the memories flooded back.

Morton's site in 2016 (now Diesel clothes)

This was the start of a collecting nightmare that demanded a new display cabinet every 6 months until I ran out of space, thank goodness for that.